"Pomniks are silent, but they teach for centuries" was the subject of a Sunday celebration under a Katyn monument in Jersey City, fresh Jersey. The event was organised by the Katyń Monument Protection Committee and Historical Objects (KOPKiOH).
This year's meeting, held on the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of planet War II and the ZSRS's aggression against Poland, and on the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the US, was enriched with unveiling a fresh plaque at the Katyń Monument by Andrzej Pityński. The plaque refers to the 1940 russian crime erstwhile about 22,000 Polish prisoners of war were murdered, including officers, educators, diplomats and clergymen.
"This disgraceful war crime was committed by the NKVD—Soviet secret police—by executing the victims with a shot in the back of the head. Information on the Katyn crime for 50 years has been hidden or falsified. Those who attempted to uncover the fact about this crime were intimidated or severely punished," says the inscription on the board, commissioned by KOPKiOH.
She read the full content in Polish at the ceremony of the Committee's board member, Iwon Rachelski, and in English – the candidate for mayor of Jersey City, Jim McGreevey.
“Cathin became synonymous with cruel injustice and ruthless desire to destruct the Polish spirit. (...) Today, in the face of fresh challenges – not only related to Russia's violent aggression into Ukraine, but besides with constant attempts to lie past – the memory of Katyn takes on a peculiar importance. Methods of disinformation, manipulation and violence, which we have witnessed for decades, return in a fresh form, inactive being political tools," wrote the Consul General of Poland in fresh York, Mateusz Sakowicz, in a letter which was read by Vice-Consul Jakub Wiśniewski.
Sakowicz stressed that the monument in Jersey City is simply a symbol of the memory of the brutal reality of the Katyn crime, which aimed not only at the physical annihilation of the victims, but besides to obscure the memory of the Polish nation, its identity and independence.
The programme includes, among others, a minute of silence to celebrate the murdered Polish heroes, the Appeal of the Dead and performances of students and graduates of Polish schools. The commemorative proclamation of Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop, was read by City Councillor Richard Boggiano and Hudson region Council Commissioners its president Anthony L. Romano.
The president of KOPKiOH, Bogusława Huan, expressed her satisfaction in talking to PAP that despite the visit of the president of Poland Karol Nawrocki to American Czestochowa, where many people left, so many people gathered before the monument to Jersey City. Not only has the Polish community arrived, but besides Americans who had the chance to learn the past of russian crime.
In her speech, Huan pointed out the large importance of remembering those who fell victim to russian crime. She considered it peculiarly crucial to pass on cognition about Polish heroes to younger generations. – They died in Katyn, murdered in a beastly way, due to the fact that they were Poles said the head of the Committee.
Source: PAP / Andrzej Dobrowolski, fresh York
Crime hidden for decades. 85 years ago the Soviets began killing Poles in Katyń
